Charles w



C. W. DAKE.

PISTON DISTRIBUTION VALVE.

APPLICATION man mm. 1917.

Patented June 24, 1919.

Iz'z/enim" 1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES W. BAKE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE PYLE-hTATIONALCOMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

rrs'ron DISTRIBUTION-VALVE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES W. DAKE, a citizen of-the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Piston Distribution-Valves, of which the following is a specifieation.

My invention relates to improvements in distribution valves for steamengines and the like, and has for one object to provide a newandimproved form of cylindrical shell -type piston valve. In my form ofvalve the steam or vapor which is being controlled, passes through avalve seat which is ported, and these ports are opened and closed by thevalve itself. Inmy preferred form each valve has one or more exhaustedges and one or more advance and cut-off edges, which I prefer to termgenerally the working-edges of the valve. The valve reciprocates in thisvalve seat and on either side of the port in the valve seat arecompression packing spring'rings. These rings grip the valve and are in'slidable'engageinent therewith. So long as the valve body .itself is inengagement with these rings,

they maintain their position, but, as the valve reclprocates, means mustbe provlded to hold these rings in position against the compression portwhich they exert when the valve proper has been withdrawn from theirgrip. The means which-Iprovide takes the form of a skirt on either sideof each valve member, or either side of each valveworking edge. Theseskirts are of the same diameter as the valve, and are carried from thevalve by a series of bridging members or' fingers. Fingers extendforwardly from these skirts toward the working edges, terminating,however, short of'the working edges so as to permit the working edge toextend freely and continuously about the entire peripherly of the valve.The distance between the ends of the fingers however, and the workingedges, is such that there is no possibility of the spring ring droppingout of position as the valve reciprocates. Of course the presence ofthese fingers in the passage at the outer ends of the valve travel is ofno pzn'ticular moment, as there is ample valve opening at such times,but it is exeeedingly important that the working edge should be free andunobstructed, because at theinstant when the contact is made andSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 24, 1919.

. My invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in .theaccompanying drawings, wherein-- Figure 1 'is a section through apart ofa steam engine cylinder and valve chest showmg the valve partlyinsection and partly in elevation.

Fig. 2 is a section along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fi 3 is a block. Fig. 4 is av bottom view ofa portion of a modified formor valve; 1 1g. 5 is a section along the line 5--5 of F ig. 4. v

Like parts are indicated by like figures-in all the drawings.

A is a steam engine piston, adapted toreclprocatewi'thin a'cylinder ASteam. pas-- sages A A lead from either end of the steam engine cylinderto the valve chest A. Steam is supplied to the valve chest through thepassage A and distributed toward both v ends to supply the .passages AflA by the valve which will subsequently be described, the discharge ofthe exhaust steam not being shown, butit is understood of course thatthesteam will be discharged from the two ends 1 of the valve chest. Thevalve chest contains adjacent both ends a valve seat made up of thecylindrical valve rings A, A. These rings are separated by an annulargroove A in the wall ,of the valve chest, and this groove is indicatedat the passages A and A". The presence of these .two lining ringsresults in the formation of two annular ports in the valve seat oneconnect-' ing with each end of the engine cylinder. These two ports arebounded on either side by spring compression rings 1A"; These springcompression rings are contained within the walls forming the valve seatand abut at either end at the bottom of the seat upon a filling block itupon which the valve rides. The relation of the filling block. the ringsand the valve, as subsequently will be pointed out, is such that therings clos-sely grip the valve and make the steanutight connectionbetween it, but they are held by their position in the valve seat ltltlagainst longitudinal movement, and slide with respect to the valve.

B is the valve body. It contains a wrist-- pin B upon which is pivoted avalve stem B which stem is adapted to be reclprocated in unison with thepiston by any suitable means not here illustrated. The valve body isexpanded or bell-shaped at either end as shown at B3, andthese expandedends carry cylindrical valve members B at either end, there 'bein portA. ach of these valve members has an exhaust edge B and an advance andcut-off edge B, and these members bear upon the block A, and aresurrounded by the packing rings A", so-that' as the .valve reciprocatesthe passage or movement of, the steam iscontrolled. Obviously as thevalve moves toward the left from the position shown in Fig. 1, theexhaust edge will open the port A and the steam will discharge from thecylinder through the pipe or passage A into the exhaust- At thesame timethe advance and cut-off edge on the other end of the valve will move toopen the passage to permit live steam to pass through the passa e A intothe other end of the cylinder. fins operation continues as the enginevalve gear is operated.

In order to prevent a collapse of the spring rings when the valve properis drawn from engagement with them,the skirts C, C are provided oneither endof the valve. These skirts are cylindrical members of the samesize as the valve itself. They are connected to and supported thereby bymeans of reinforcing ribs G which ribs are cut away as indicated at C soas to be removed a considerable distance from the effective gers (J?extend inwardly toward the working edges from the members O, C Thesefingers decrease in width as they approach toward these edges and stopshort of the edges as indicated. It will be understood that thus amaximum opening is given immediately adjacent the working edges, and theopening decreases away from the working edges' This does no harm,because the tapering supporting fingers encroach only uponthat portionof the valve opening effeotive at the full length of valve movement whenthe opening is wide and there is no danger of insufficient valveopening. The

distance between the ends of these fingersone valve member B for eachand the working edges of the valve is such that there is no possibilityof the compresportions might easily be changed without in any Wayinterfering with th operation of the device.

An inspection of 2 will show that the block A. issuch that its two endsare in line with the two lower ribs. The spring rings, therefore, aresupported by the two lower fingers in line with the two lower ribs, andthus there is no possibility of leakage between'the ends of the bearingblock and the spring fingers, and the spring fingers are supported andpositioned, and there is no possibility of their slipping up orspringing up to interrupt or interfere with the operation of the valve.

In the modified form shown in Fig. 5, the bearin block D is muchnarrower than the block and in this cas the lower fingers D terminate inextension members D which actually bridge the gap and reach clear overto the working edges of the valve, the working edges being free at allthe immediate bottom.

It will be obvious that my device is illustrated in a more or lessdiagrammatic and general way, and that many changes might be made bothin size, shape and arrangement of parts without departing materiallyfrom the spirit of my invention, and I wish, therefore, that my drawingsbe regarded as in a sense diagrammatic.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows:

The piston reciprocates in the usual way driving the engine. toreciprocate by the valve gears operated by the engine in the usualmanner. These parts except the valve stem and piston do not do anythingbecause they form no part of my invention. The steam is admitted to thesteam chest in the usual way and is distributed from it first to one endand then to the other end of the cylinder and causes the piston to' recirocate and the exhaust steam is discharge in the usual way.

The piston itself is a thin walled light symmetrical casting whichconsists merely in a c lindrical body portion with a flared or bel-shaped end carrying cylindrical valve portions. The cylindricalportions I have shown separated at either end of a dumb-bell. Thestructure might obviously be different. The point is that at each end ofeach cylindrical valve portion is a sharp working edge, one edge is theexhaust edge, the other the advance and cut-off edge. There are two suchedges for each end of points except at The valve is caused the cylinder,that is to say, the advance and cut-off edge and the exhaust edge. Asthe.

piston valve reciprocates the exhaust edge on one end permits steam toexhaust from that end at about the same time the ad vance and cut-oifedge at the other end makes the live steam end of the cylinder.

The valve is surrounded by two spring.

packing rings at either end. These spring packing rings form what is inelfect part of the valve seat and the inclosing cylinders which supportthese rings merely form supports and abutments for the springs them=selves which are in actual fact operating portions of the valve seat.These spring rings grip the valve cylinder being pressed thereagainstboth by their own tension and the steam in the usual way. The weight ofthe valve is supported on the bearing block at either end at the bottomand this block is in effect part of the spring pressed valve seat sincethe spring rings abut at either end upon the rings of the block. Theeffective portion. of the valve at either end is only a little longerthan the width of the port in the valve seat and as it moves back andforth first one and then the'other ring comes out of contact with thevalve. Means must, therefore, be provided to hold these rings inposition until the valve returns as otherwise the operation of the valvewould be-interrupted- These means take the "form of a skirt or extensionon either end of'the' valve of the same diameter as the valve, but thisskirt or extension must be spaced away from and separated from theeffective working edges of the valve as otherwise the valve area at thelower load line or short cut-ofi will be fatally reduced. Tn mypreferred form,

therefore, T support these members by ribs which are cut away adjacentthe worklng edges of the valve but furnish a support for the parts andtie themtogether. Tn order, however, that the spring rings may not falldown in between these members and the working edges of the valve, Tprovide fingers. extending toward the working v edges. These fingersterminate short ofthe working edges which are tapered so that at theshorter valve travel they will furnish a minimum of obstruction for thepassage of the steam,'whereas as they widen toward that part of thevalve exposed at larger travel noharm is done because ample port area isavailable.

T claim:

l. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprorating it a seattherefor including compression sprlng rings incloslng and in slidablecontact with the valve, and means movable with the valve comprising anapron of the same diameter as the valve, and spaced away from theworking edge of the valve for holding said rings in posi- "apron towardthe working, edges of said valve. I

2. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprocating it, a seattherefor including compression spring rings inclosing and in slidablecontact with the valve and means movable with the valve comprising anapron, of the same diameter as the valve, and spaced away. from. theworking edge of the valve for holding said rings in position, supportingribs interposed between the apron and the valve, said ribs being cutaway adjacent. the edge of the valve, to provide an opening aboutthe'substantially entire'periphery of the valve immediately adjacent theworking edge, fingers extending inwardly from said apron toward theworking edges of said valve.

3. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprocating it, a seattherefor including compression spring rings inclosing and 111 shdablecontact wlth the valve,.and means movable wlth the valve compr1s1ng anapron of the same diameter as the valve, and spaced away from theworking edge of the valve for holding said rings 'in position, fingersextending inwardly from said apron toward the working edges of saidvalve, .said fingers decreasing in wldth toward the valve.

4. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprocating it, a seattherefor includ ing compression spring rings inclosing and opening aboutthe substantially entire periphery of the valve immediately adjacent theWorking edge, fingers extending inwardly from said apron toward theworking edges of said valve, said fingers decreasing in width toward thevalve,

5.. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprocating it, a seattherefor including compression spring rings inclosing and in slidablecontact with the valve,and means movable with the valve comprising anapron.

of the same diameter as the valve, and spaced away from the working edgeof the valve for holding said rings in position, fingers extendinginwardly from said apron toward the working edges of said valve, saidfingers terminating at a point removed from the working edge of thevalve.

6. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprocating it, a seattherefor including compression spring rings inclosing and in slidablecontact with the valve, and means movable with the valve comprising anapron of the same diameter as the valve, and spaced holding said ringsin position, supporting .ribs interposed between the apron and thevalve, said'ribs beingcut away adjacent the .edge of the valve, toprovide an opening about the substantially entire periphery of the valveimmediately adj acent' the working edge, fingers extendinginwardly fromsaid apron toward the working edges of said valve, said fingersterminating at a point removed from the Working edge of the valve.

7. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprocating it, a seattherefor including compression spring rings inclosing and in slidablecontactwith the valve, and means movable with the Valve comprising anapron of the same diameter as the valve, and spaced away from theWorking edge of the valve for holding said rings in position, fingersextending inwardly from said apron toward the working edges of said'valve, said fingers decreasing in width toward the valve, said fingersterminating at a point removed from the Working edge of the .valve.

8. A cylindrical piston valve and means for reciprocating" it, a seattherefor including compression spring rings inclosing and in slidablecontact with the valve, and means movable with the valve comprising anapron of the same diameter as the valve, and spaced away from theworking edge of the valve for holding said rings in position, supportthevalve, said ribs being cut away adjacent the edge of the valve, toprovide an opening about the substantially entire periphery of the valveimmediately adjacent the working ing ribs interposed between the apronandedge, fingers extending inwardly from said apron toward the workingedges of said valve, said fingers decreasing in width toward the valve,said fingers terminating at a point removed from the working edge of thevalve.

9. A valve comprising a housing, steam port-s therein, annular valveseat rings separate one from another located within said houslng onopposed sldes of sald ports. spring packing rings mounted within saidseats boundlng said ports, a hollow plston valve slidable within saidvalve seat and yieldinglygripped by said spring rings, said piston valvehaving a cylindrical extension integral therewith. and a working edge, apiston rod located within the hollow piston out of contact and removedfrom the cylindrical extension, an apron in opposition to the workingedge adapted when the working edge is out of register with the springring to hold CHARLES W. DAKE.

Witnesses:

MARION INGRAHAM, MINNIE M. LINDENAU.

